Baconfest 2011 is starting to shape up - we've been looking at venues and it seems like April 2011 is a good time to do it. At the moment, the UIC Forum is in the lead of prospective venues. Our plan is to have alot more space, and a free vendor expo that's open to the public instead of just an adjunct to the chef event.

Bacon tattoo contest is an awesome idea!

In the meantime, we're throwing a series of satellite events - bacon-dinners. The first is at Chalkboard restaurant in Lincoln Square. Four bacon-courses made with Nueske's bacon including sparkling wine aperitif (Tenuta Santome prosecco) and a Templeton Rye cocktail with dessert. All for $45 (tax and tip not included, additional beverages are extra).

The event is September 13 (a monday night) at 6:30. Reservations can be made through open table:http://www.opentable.com/chalkboard. Just reserve for Sept 13 at 6:30 PM (the only available slot).

We have another satellite dinner coming up next week on Tuesday at The Southern featuring food by Cary Taylor (the chef there) and Troy Graves (the chef from Eve). There are a few seats left if LTH Folk would like to take advantage! It's $55 for five courses, a mini cocktail and a glass of prosecco. To book call the restaurant (773) 342-1840 or reserve via email erin@thesouthernchicago.com.

My friends from R.G.W. Candy Company, Atlanta, IL will be a vendor at BaconFest this year. I stopped in last summer where they had full strips of bacon covered in chocolate. At the State Fairs visited last summer, all the chocolate covered bacon were small pieces.

Wow -- what a great event. Thanks and congratulations to you, Seth, and to all your team, for an incredible day. The food was glorious. The cocktails were wonderful. The people were friendly and excited -- both those working and those indulging. I was hugely impressed with how perfectly the event came off -- just the right number of people, so that it was vibrant but not crushing, and it was easy to get to each booth. Really fabulous.

Some truly amazing preparations, too. I ran out of room before I ran out of options, but I did my best to hit as many as possible. I finally had enough braised pork belly, and there were a couple of preparations of grits that, though intended as background, were stellar (like the Parmiggianno/Regianno grits from Jimmy Bannos). I don't even want to mention favorites, because everything was so good and so remarkably different, despite all focusing on bacon.

Just a splendid event. Thanks for all the work.

"All great change in America begins at the dinner table." Ronald Reagan

Cynthia wrote:...just the right number of people, so that it was vibrant but not crushing, and it was easy to get to each booth. Really fabulous...

...Just a splendid event. Thanks for all the work.

I had a great time at Baconfest on Saturday and applaud the organizers for pulling off a great event. I'm very happy with my choice to spend a few extra bucks to get VIP tickets.

Having an hour to walk around taste amazing dishes, talk with the chefs and relax without a crush of people was really worth it for me. Once noon rolled around however, I immediately felt the crush of people. Now, I'm not expecting the place to be empty, and I understand selling as many tickets as possible, but I felt that when the general ticket holders were let in the place was just too crowded. One could hardly walk down the aisles, and getting a space on a table was difficult too. Last year, in a much smaller space, I never felt this way.

Thank you for the kind words and the feedback about space. We were really tickled, once again, to witness the wonderful community of bacon-lovers that gathers at our event. We're happy to report that between cash and donated food, our event will make available over 65,000 lbs of food for the Greater Chicago Food Depository.

In the first 3 minutes, all of the tickets went into shopping carts, but about a quarter of those transactions were abandoned. As transactions were abandoned, tickets went back on sale. It took about 3.5 hours for all of the tickets to eventually get purchased. Sorry to hear you tried to buy and weren't able to get them.

Mrs. EdB60035 and I bought four tickets for the evening (6:30 PM) entry to Baconfest Chicago 2012, and regrettably, our friends are no longer able to make it. Looking for another couple to join us, the tickets are $77.87 each (face value), and the tickets require the entire party to enter the event at once. Please PM me if interested.

Amazing event. Once again, Seth and friends created an astonishing culinary playground where we got to sample the skills of some of Chicagoland's best chefs, all in the cause of advancing bacon. Great food -- but even more impressive was how well run the event was. Really well done on every level.

Don't know if I'll be able to eat anything else before about Wednesday, but wow, what a fabulous day. Thanks so much to all the planners and contributors and cooks and volunteer staff.

"All great change in America begins at the dinner table." Ronald Reagan

While I will commend the producers on GREATLY improving their event over last year, the food, I thought, was in general "meh." Of the 14 or so dishes I sampled 3 were good 2 were bad, and the rest were just OK.

While I will commend the producers on GREATLY improving their event over last year, the food, I thought, was in general "meh." Of the 14 or so dishes I sampled 3 were good 2 were bad, and the rest were just OK.

Did you go to "lunch" or "dinner"?

At lunch, there were a few less than successful items (or, to be more accurate, just not to my taste), but on the whole, everything I tried ranged from good to fabulous. Of course, everyone has different expectations and preferences -- plus there's always the chance that I got lucky in my choices, as there were a lot more than just 14 things to sample -- I couldn't even begin to try everything there.

"All great change in America begins at the dinner table." Ronald Reagan

I'm flabbergasted by the mammoth success of BaconFest. Thinking back to the very first BaconFest event at Publican (October 2009), it was mind-boggling seeing the UIC Forum filled to capacity yesterday (and knowing it had been similarly filled for the early session). What a great job Seth and his partners have done in cultivating this event. The participating chefs seemed to really be into it, too. They were having a blast. With the exception of the annual Green City Market BBQ Festival, I cannot think of another food event in town where the chefs participate in such numbers, and so enthusiastically.

It was an honor to be selected as one of the judges at the PM session (along with Daniel Zemans of Serious Eats, Ellen Malloy of R.I.A. and Tanya Nueske of Nueske's Smoked Meats, which donated over 2 tons of bacon to the event). There were, I believe, 55 different chefs/entities cooking. 40 of those 55 chose to compete for the Golden Rasher Award. So, each of us 4 judges was asked to initially try 10 dishes and identify the 1 or 2 that we thought represented the most creative use of bacon. That was tough because creativity and success don't always go together. Some of the most successful dishes I tried weren't overly creative and some of the most creative dishes I tried weren't entirely successful. Still, of my initial 10 (and a few others I sampled along the way), a majority of the dishes were very good to excellent.

After we each tasted our initial 10, we reconvened in the judges' room where servings of all of our initial favorites were brought to us. We each tasted the other judges' choices. There was some friendly deliberation but in the end, it came down fairly easily to just a couple, which all 4 of us felt were best of the best. We awarded the Golden Rasher to chef Matt Troost of 3 Aces for his combo dish: Shake 'n Bake: Bacon "Steak" 'n Bacon Shake. Both components were excellent and could have stood on their own but together, they clearly set the bar for creativity. Both dishes also happened to be delicious.

We had a great time and it was extremely cool seeing so many devotees, enthusiasts and chefs all coming together in the name of beloved bacon. Congrats, to the entire BaconFest team for putting on such a magnificent event.

=R=

I am not interested in how I would evaluate the Springbank in a blind tasting. Every spirit has its story, and I include it in my evaluation, just as I do with human beings. --Thad Vogler